Peter Creagh - Irish Biography

Creagh, Peter, Archbishop of Dublin, grand-nephew of preceding, was born in Limerick the middle of the 17th century, and was educated on the Continent; he entered the priesthood, and officiated for some time in Dublin. Appointed clerical agent at the court of Rome, he was by Clement X. consecrated Bishop of Cork. For two years, during the persecution consequent on the Oates plot, he was obliged to secrete himself in different parts of his diocese under various disguises, suffering untold hardships. He was ultimately betrayed, and imprisoned for two years in Limerick and Dublin. About 1686, he was translated to the Archdiocese of Tuam. He joined James II. in France after the surrender of Limerick. In 1693 he was appointed Archbishop of Dublin, but was never able to discharge the duties of the office in person. The latter part of his life was spent at Strasbourg, where he died in July 1705.

Featured Books

Ireland’s Welcome to the Stranger (also onKindle) is an American widow’s account of her travels in Ireland in 1844–45 on the eve of the Great Famine. Sailing from New York, she set out to determine the condition of the Irish poor and discover why so many were emigrating to her home country. Mrs Nicholson’s recollections of her tour among the peasantry are still revealing and gripping today. The author returned to Ireland in 1847–49 to help with famine relief and recorded those experiences in the rather harrowingAnnals of the Famine in Ireland (Kindle version here).

Annals of the Famine in Ireland is Asenath Nicholson's sequel to Ireland's Welcome to the Stranger. The undaunted American widow returned to Ireland in the midst of the Great Famine and helped organise relief for the destitute and hungry. Her account is not a history of the famine, but personal eyewitness testimony to the suffering it caused. For that reason, it conveys the reality of the calamity in a much more telling way. The book is also available in Kindle.

The Scotch-Irish in America tells the story of how the hardy breed of men and women, who in America came to be known as the ‘Scotch-Irish’, was forged in the north of Ireland during the seventeenth century. It relates the circumstances under which the great exodus to the New World began, the trials and tribulations faced by these tough American pioneers and the enduring influence they came to exert on the politics, education and religion of the country.